www.dropsitenews.com
On Wednesday, a federal judge in New York will sentence Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former drug czar, following his conviction for drug trafficking and continuing a criminal enterprise—and an architect of the Bush-era torture program is coming to his defense. As a former cabinet level official and Mexico’s former “top cop,” García Luna collaborated closely with U.S. law enforcement agencies, all while receiving at least $274 million in bribes to help facilitate the Sinaloa Cartel’s cocaine trafficking operations. The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a life sentence for García Luna; his attorney is asking for a sentence of 20 years. Late on Tuesday, he submitted a letter to the judge asking for a lenient sentence, and to be allowed to return "as soon as possible" to his family and to society. Yet García Luna still has friends in high places. In mid-September Jose Rodriguez, the 31-year CIA veteran who helped develop and cover up the agency’s torture program during the War on Terror, submitted a letter on his behalf. Typically, defense attorneys submit such letters from those who know the convicted individual and seek to argue for a lighter sentence. In his letter, Rodriguez describes García Luna as a “visionary” who wants only to help Mexico, and suggests that Mexico’s left-wing government may have “framed” him.
Israel plans to use slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s body as “another bargaining chip” in negotiations to get hostages out of Gaza, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
www.aljazeera.com
Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated that returning Russian service members were undergoing medical checks in Belarus, one of Russia’s closest allies throughout the two-and-half-year conflict. A Russian military video showed smiling soldiers boarding buses. A video posted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram account, meanwhile, showed men, some wrapped in the Ukrainian flag, getting off a bus and hugging loved ones. “Every time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we get closer to the day when freedom will be returned to all who are in Russian captivity,” the president said. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the exchange as “a reflection of the cooperative and friendly relations between the UAE and both countries”. It was its ninth time mediating such an exchange between Moscow and Kyiv.
www.aljazeera.com
The university’s hypocrisy became apparent to me and other Palestinian students almost immediately after October 7, 2023. On October 9, students at the Michigan Law School used the public law-open server, an email chain that connects everyone at the law school, to describe Palestinians as “animals” and their Muslim and Arab classmates as “rejoic[ing] in mass murder” and supporting rape. This language was reported to the administration, who took no action. As the greater Michigan student body started organising and protesting on campus, the university’s discrimination against marginalised students became even more apparent. It repeatedly sent campus police to disperse our protests and sit-ins, with students being physically assaulted, pepper-sprayed and arrested, while hijabs of female students were ripped off. It also ramped up surveillance. Police presence and the number of surveillance cameras around the Arab lounge on campus noticeably increased. The administration never issued any apology for nor condemnation of the extreme acts of police violence against students who were protesting a genocide that the university funds.
en.royanews.tv
The commander of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) 401st Armored Brigade was killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Jabalia, north Gaza today. According to the IOF’s statement, Colonel Ehsan Daqsa was killed when his tank and another were hit by explosive devices during the ongoing operations in Jabalia.
geneva_convenience
9h ago
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Sounds like the generator had issues
geneva_convenience
15h ago
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“This kind of escalation in charging or threats of charges is textbook escalation by government actors against successful efforts by social movements that they disagree with or find subversive,” said Justin Marceau, a law professor who runs a legal clinic for animal activists at the University of Denver. “The very framing of civil disobedience against factory farms as terrorism is a form of government repression.”
theintercept.com
On a chilly, early morning in January 2019, a group of animal rights activists descended upon a poultry farm in central Texas. Donning plastic gloves, medical masks, hazmat suits, and T-shirts emblazoned with “Meat the Victims,” they slipped through the unlocked door of a massive, windowless barn. Inside, they found 27,000 chicks densely packed across the floor, like “just a sea of yellow,” recalled Sarah Weldon, one of the activists. “There were a lot of chicks that were already deceased, in various stages of decomposition,” she said. “Some were so deformed you couldn’t even tell they used to be baby chicks, just fluffs of feathers.” Activists with Meat the Victims, a decentralized, global movement to abolish animal exploitation, later uploaded gruesome photos of injured and dead chicks to social media platforms. This is how, Weldon suspects, the police identified her and issued a warrant for her arrest, along with 14 other activists. She was charged with criminal trespassing, a Class B misdemeanor, and quickly turned herself into jail. The FBI has been collaborating with the meat industry to gather information on animal rights activism, including Meat the Victims, under its directive to counter weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, according to agency records recently obtained by the nonprofit Animal Partisan through Freedom of Information Act litigation. The records also show that the bureau has explored charging activists who break into factory farms under federal criminal statutes that carry a possible sentence of up to life in prison — including for the “attempted use” of WMD — while urging meat producers to report encounters with activists to its WMD program.
SHENGJIN, Albania, Oct 19 (Reuters) - An Italian coastguard vessel collected migrants that were held in reception centres in Albania and transferred them to Italy on Saturday, after a court ruling dealt a blow to Rome's plans to house migrants picked up at sea outside the EU. The Italian government vowed on Friday to push ahead with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's flagship project to divert asylum-seekers abroad, saying it would appeal against the legal decision that migrants in reception centres in Albania should be taken to Italy. A cabinet meeting will be held on Monday to decide on the government's response. The migrants were taken to Albania earlier this week by an Italian navy ship. They originally numbered 16, but four have already been brought to Italy for health reasons or because they were minors. The court said the 12 migrants in the new Albanian facility of Gjader had to return to Italy because their countries of origin -- Egypt and Bangladesh -- could not be considered safe.
geneva_convenience
1d ago
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European journalists are getting raided and arrested for covering the genocide in Gaza.
zeteo.com
Early Thursday morning, I was woken by a distressed call from a doctor in Gaza, telling me of an Israeli strike on a school in the Jabalia refugee camp that killed dozens of Palestinians and injured scores of others. Hours later, I asked the State Department whether the US is actually enforcing its laws regarding military aid to governments committing violations of international humanitarian law. The response from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller? He accused me of wanting to end all US support for Israel.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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Donato received the donato.
Oct 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge in California has granted Google's request to temporarily pause his order directing the Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit to overhaul its Android app store Play by Nov. 1 to give consumers more choice over how they download software. San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge James Donato made the decision on Friday as part of an antitrust lawsuit against Google by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games. Google argued that Donato's Oct. 7 injunction would harm the company and introduce "serious safety, security and privacy risks into the Android ecosystem." Donato delayed the injunction to allow the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider Google's separate request to pause the judge's order. Donato denied Google's separate request to pause the order for the duration of its broader appeal in the case.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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No waste on the surplus
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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WoW maybe. But Runescape was good too.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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Explains the stonks
The movement said in a statement that Hamdan was killed while actively engaging with the Israeli army, reportedly alongside Sinwar.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has urged US President Joe Biden to release jailed Pakistani national, Aafia Siddiqui, Anadolu Agency reports. Sharif expressed concern in a letter sent to Biden on 13 October regarding Siddiqui’s fragile mental and physical health in prison, the local daily, Dawn, reported on Friday. Siddiqui is serving an 86-year prison sentence in Texas for attempting to murder an American soldier in Afghanistan. “Numerous Pakistani officials have paid consular visits to Dr Siddiqui […] all of them have raised their serious concerns about the treatment she has received,” Sharif stated, adding that they have expressed serious concerns about her treatment and fear she may commit suicide. Siddiqui, who earned her PhD from Brandeis University, went missing in Pakistan in 2004 with her three minor children before being found in a US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan in 2008. She was accused of attacking a US soldier during interrogation, which she and her family denied. In 2010, she was sentenced to prison by a US court.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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They said he was dressed as a woman a month ago
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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Many leaders in the middle east are American proxies. By extension they will obey Israel. America has to make concessions for it, by giving their leaders things they want such as F35 planes.
Israeli allies are:
- Egypt
- Saudi
- UAE
- Jordan
- Turkey
The resistance is:
- Palestine
- Lebanon
- Iraq
- Iran
- Yemen
Keep in mind the population of all these countries hate Israel. Their leaders and army are compromised.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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Do I hear a great opportunity to win over right wing voters?
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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I'm glad you're here though.
WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. auto safety regulator on Friday opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the automaker's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software after four reported collisions, including a 2023 fatal crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) preliminary evaluation is the first step before the agency could seek a recall of the vehicles if it believes they pose an unreasonable risk to safety. The new scrutiny of the advanced driver assistance system comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks to shift Tesla's focus to self-driving technology and robotaxis as it faces growing competition and weak demand in its auto business.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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Charge insane prices and still scam the government. Arms dealers are something else.
One of Amazon's (AMZN.O) top executives defended the new, controversial 5-day-per-week in-office policy on Thursday, saying those who do not support it can leave for another company. Speaking at an all-hands meeting for AWS, unit CEO Matt Garman said nine out of 10 workers he has spoken with support the new policy, which takes effect in January, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters. Those who do not wish to work for Amazon in-office five days per week can quit, he suggested.
theintercept.com
Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attacks, was a top target for Israel. After months of Israel claiming that Sinwar was hiding in tunnels behind “human shields,” the Hamas leader was gravely wounded by tank fire when he was above ground and alone, as he sat on a chair covered in dust in a ruined apartment, according to drone footage released by the Israeli military. Following the news of Sinwar’s death, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a post on X: “After recent conversations w/leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia & UAE, I have real hope that Sinwar’s death creates truly historic opportunities for Israel’s security, cessation of fighting & regional peace & stability through normalization of relations. The moment must be seized.” Just beneath the surface of Blumenthal’s remarks is a widely discussed mega-deal that would effectively create a U.S.-Gulf regime neo-colony in Gaza, commit the U.S. to going to war for Saudi Arabia, and plunge us deeper into a new cold war with China.
www.middleeasteye.net
Dr Feroze Sidhwa, the author of the recent New York Times guest essay chronicling what 65 doctors, nurses and paramedics witnessed while working on the frontlines of Israel's war on Gaza, was a volunteer with one of the medical groups now banned by Israel from entering Gaza. Sidhwa was a volunteer with the Palestinian American Medical Association (Pama), according to a Facebook post by the organisation in September. Pama said Sidhwa had volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pama confirmed to The Washington Post on Friday that it was one of the organisations Israel has banned from entering Gaza. The medical organisation had worked in Gaza for years before the current war.
geneva_convenience
2d ago
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Everybody moved on to autonomous car dillemas
theintercept.com
The plan, mentioned in a new 76-page wish list by the Department of Defense’s Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, outlines advanced technologies desired for country’s most elite, clandestine military efforts. “Special Operations Forces (SOF) are interested in technologies that can generate convincing online personas for use on social media platforms, social networking sites, and other online content,” the entry reads. The document specifies that JSOC wants the ability to create online user profiles that “appear to be a unique individual that is recognizable as human but does not exist in the real world,” with each featuring “multiple expressions” and “Government Identification quality photos.” In addition to still images of faked people, the document notes that “the solution should include facial & background imagery, facial & background video, and audio layers,” and JSOC hopes to be able to generate “selfie video” from these fabricated humans. These videos will feature more than fake people: Each deepfake selfie will come with a matching faked background, “to create a virtual environment undetectable by social media algorithms.”
www.theguardian.com
The Dutch coalition government, headed by Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV), is considering sending Africans whose asylum requests are rejected to Uganda, in plans that opposition politicians have said are “totally unfeasible”. During a visit this week to the East African country, the Dutch minister for trade and development, Reinette Klever, said the cabinet was exploring the ideaand that Uganda was “not averse” to it, the Dutch public broadcaster Nos reported on Wednesday. Klever offered few details and it is unclear whether such a plan would be legal or feasible, but it is reported to involve rejected asylum seekers from Uganda and the surrounding region – the exact list of countries has not been specified – being taken in by Uganda and hosted in exchange for financial compensation.
www.haaretz.com
An invitation from Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, to an event near the Gaza border has been circulated under the title "Preparing to Settle Gaza." The event, scheduled for next week, will feature the construction of a sukkah as part of a "city of sukkahs" initiative by the Nachala movement, which is known for establishing illegal outposts in the West Bank Social Equality Minister May Golan, along with MKs Tally Gotliv, Osher Shkalim and Hanoch Milwidsky, confirmed to Haaretz that they will attend the event. The invitation also mentions that six other Likud MKs are expected to participate. The Nachala movement stated that "the event is not just a theoretical conference, but a practical exercise and preparation for renewed settlement in Gaza." The movement added that "the return to settlement in Gaza is no longer just an idea but a process that is already in advanced stages, with government and public support."
www.aljazeera.com
The United States military has bombed a series of targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, the US defence chief has said. US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers conducted “precision strikes” against five underground weapons storage locations, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday. The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV satellite news channel reported air strikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014, and around its stronghold of Saada. It provided no immediate information on damage or casualties. The latest bombing raids come a day after the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned that the country was at risk of being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East.
geneva_convenience
4d ago
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Why is TSMC growing but ASML shrinking?
www.aljazeera.com
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has announced a forecast-busting quarterly profit amid surging demand for chips used to power artificial intelligence. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported a net profit of 352.3 billion Taiwanese dollars ($10.1bn) for the third quarter, up 54.2 percent from the same period last year. The figure marked the firm’s best-ever quarterly performance and was comfortably ahead of market estimates.
geneva_convenience
4d ago
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I'm a big Slay the Spire fan but have never heard of it yet. I'll check it out, but I do wonder why it's ranked higher than Slay the Spire.
geneva_convenience
4d ago
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Jail for none
geneva_convenience
4d ago
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She accidentally swapped the words kids and little.
geneva_convenience
4d ago
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Very interesting video